Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show
Its own in-depth research shows a significant teen mental-health issue that Facebook plays down in public
By Georgia Wells, Jeff Horwitz and Deepa Seetharaman
Sept. 14, 2021
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About a year ago, teenager Anastasia Vlasova started seeing a therapist. She had developed an eating disorder and had a clear idea of what led to it: her time on Instagram.
Facebook Tried to Make Its Platform a Healthier Place. It Got Angrier Instead.
Internal memos show how a big 2018 change rewarded outrage and that CEO Mark Zuckerberg resisted proposed fixes
By Keach Hagey and Jeff Horwitz
Sept. 15, 2021
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In the fall of 2018, Jonah Peretti, chief executive of online publisher BuzzFeed, emailed a top official at Facebook Inc. The most divisive content that publishers produced was going viral on the platform, he said, creating an incentive to produce more of it.
Facebook Employees Flag Drug Cartels and Human Traffickers. The Company’s Response Is Weak, Documents Show.
Employees raised alarms about how the site is used in developing countries, where its user base is already huge and expanding
By Justin Scheck, Newley Purnell and Jeff Horwitz
Sept. 16, 2021
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In January, a former cop turned Facebook Inc. investigator posted an all-staff memo on the company’s internal message board. It began “Happy 2021 to everyone!!” and then proceeded to detail a new set of what he called “learnings.” The biggest one: A Mexican drug cartel was using Facebook to recruit, train and pay hit men.
How Facebook Hobbled Mark Zuckerberg’s Bid to Get America Vaccinated
Company documents show antivaccine activists undermined the CEO’s ambition to support the rollout by flooding the site and using Facebook’s own tools to sow doubt about the Covid-19 vaccine
By Sam Schechner, Jeff Horwitz and Emily Glazer
Sept. 17, 2021
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In mid-March, Mark Zuckerberg used his Facebook page to announce a goal that was both ambitious and personal. He wanted his company to use its formidable resources to push 50 million people toward Covid-19 vaccines.
Facebook Says Its Rules Apply to All. Company Documents Reveal a Secret Elite That’s Exempt
A program known as XCheck has given millions of celebrities, politicians and other high-profile users special treatment, a privilege many abuse
By Jeff Horwitz
Sept. 21, 2021
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Mark Zuckerberg has publicly said Facebook Inc. allows its more than three billion users to speak on equal footing with the elites of politics, culture and journalism, and that its standards of behavior apply to everyone, no matter their status or fame.
Facebook’s Effort to Attract Preteens Goes Beyond Instagram Kids, Documents Show
It has investigated how to engage young users in response to competition from Snapchat, TikTok; ‘Exploring playdates as a growth lever’
By Georgia Wells and Jeff Horwitz
Sept. 28, 2021
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Facebook Inc. has come under increasing fire in recent days for its effect on young users and its efforts to create products for them. Inside the company, teams of employees have for years been laying plans to attract preteens that go beyond what is publicly known, spurred by fear that Facebook could lose a new generation of users critical to its future.
Facebook’s Documents About Instagram and Teens, Published
The Senate holds a hearing Thursday about the social network’s impact, prompted by The Wall Street Journal’s coverage
By Wall Street Journal Staff
Sept. 29, 2021
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Facebook Inc. is scheduled to testify at a Senate hearing on Thursday about its products’ effects on young people’s mental health
Is Sheryl Sandberg’s Power Shrinking? Ten Years of Facebook Data Offers Clues
Worker lists reveal which teams are growing fastest, and shifting power centers and priorities
By Stephanie Stamm, John West and Deepa Seetharaman
Oct. 1, 2021
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Facebook Inc. has grown at an explosive pace. Since 2012, the year it went public, the total number of employees on staff has grown by an average of 38% a year, hitting 63,404 in June, according to company filings
The Facebook Whistleblower, Frances Haugen, Says She Wants to Fix the Company, Not Harm It
The former Facebook employee says her goal is to help prompt change at the social-media giant
By Jeff Horwitz
Oct. 3, 2021
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The former Facebook Inc. employee who gathered documents that formed the foundation of The Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Files series said she acted to help prompt change at the social-media giant, not to stir anger toward it.
Facebook Says AI Will Clean Up the Platform. Its Own Engineers Have Doubts
AI has only minimal success in removing hate speech, violent images and other problem content, according to internal company reports
By Deepa Seetharaman, Jeff Horwitz and Justin Scheck
Oct. 17, 2021
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Facebook Inc. executives have long said that artificial intelligence would address the compa¬ny’s chronic problems keeping what it deems hate speech and excessive violence as well as underage users off its platforms.
How Many Users Does Facebook Have? The Company Struggles to Figure It Out
Internal research finds that new users with multiple accounts are undercounted, ‘very prevalent’; some are unintentional
By Sam Schechner and Jeff Horwitz
Oct. 21, 2021
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Facebook Inc. is struggling to detect and deal with users’ creating multiple accounts on its flagship platform, according to internal documents that raise new questions about how the social-media giant measures its audience.
Facebook Increasingly Suppresses Political Movements It Deems Dangerous
Reluctant to stifle viral content it helps amplify, the social-media giant is playing whack-a-mole with groups it believes are potentially harmful
By Jeff Horwitz and Justin Scheck
Oct. 22, 2021
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After the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, far-right activists launched an online campaign to form what they called a Patriot Party as an alternative to the Republican Party.
Facebook Services Are Used to Spread Religious Hatred in India, Internal Documents Show
Company researchers say anti-Muslim material is rife and calls to violence coincided with deadly riots last year. Facebook says it’s working to improve enforcement.
By Newley Purnell and Jeff Horwitz
Oct. 23, 2021
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Mark Zuckerberg praised India in December as a special and important country for Facebook Inc., saying that millions of people there use its platforms every day to stay in touch with family and friends. Internally, researchers were painting a different picture: Facebook’s products in India were awash with inflammatory content that one report linked to deadly religious
Facebook’s Internal Chat Boards Show Politics Often at Center of Decision Making
In hot debates, employees and management spar over allegations content rules aren’t enforced for Breitbart and other right-wing publishers for fear of public blowback. Other internal documents show management expresses wariness of appearing biased.
By Keach Hagey and Jeff Horwitz
Oct. 24, 2021
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In June 2020, when America was rocked by protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, a Facebook employee posted a message on the company’s racial-justice chat board: “Get Breitbart out of News Tab.”
Is Facebook Bad for You? It Is for About 360 Million Users, Company Surveys Suggest
The app hurts sleep, work, relationships or parenting for about 12.5% of users, who reported they felt Facebook was more of a problem than other social media
By Georgia Wells, Deepa Seetharaman and Jeff Horwitz
Nov. 5, 2021
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Facebook researchers have found that 1 in 8 of its users report engaging in compulsive use of social media that impacts their sleep, work, parenting or relationships, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
These patterns of what the company calls problematic
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